PENNSYLVANIA
The Sentinel
Marc Levy
Associated Press
The state’s top legal office told lawmakers Monday that it is unconstitutional to change state law to retroactively give victims of child sexual abuse more time to sue, although some lawmakers said they remain willing to support it.
A packed three-hour Senate Judiciary Committee hearing came against the backdrop of Roman Catholic Church scandals and a renewed push in Pennsylvania and other states to relax laws that prevent some child sexual abuse victims from suing for damages.
With victims of child sexual abuse looking on, Solicitor General Bruce L. Castor Jr. told senators that case law renders such a retroactive provision unconstitutional in Pennsylvania.
Castor was speaking for the state attorney general’s office after Attorney General Kathleen Kane, whose law license was suspended by the state Supreme Court last year, urged the panel in her seven-minute testimony to “get it right.”
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